More Nola stuff..

 

a few panels from Nola's early years..

Maxx ponders the depth of Isz skulls.

Uncle Woody

I may not have been the best choice to draw Mars Attacks. Clearly I favored drawing Uncle Woody his Niece, and the baby Alien, instead of Space Ships and Bad Aliens.

But luckily even the bad Aliens are so goofy-looking . . .

 sometimes they are kinda fun to draw too.

Isz: . . . early years of bitter struggle

The reason the Isz has a bruise is because of a joke i heard an editor once say when i was trying to break into the biz: "Everybody's got to take some lumps during their early years." 

This was a "Chapter  1" un-published version of the original Worlds of Sam book.

I was drawing Isz's years before i created the Maxx.  I could never find a good home for him though. For some reason the 'snoopy looking dude' on the right, never made it into the Maxx issues. 

Another Eleanor Cover

Another Eleanor the Egret cover, two versions. We'll probably use both, and pic one as a variant.

Which one do you like as the main cover?

Blue background...

or White?

 

Early Awkwardness

Did this in my teens.

Crude watercolors. Deliberately distorted. Yeah, the 'weirdness' phase had clearly started.

Seems i couldn't decide if i wanted to be Egon Schiele, or Berni Wrightson.  Luckily, (or maybe unluckily), a few other influences soon seeped in, until eventually . . .

i found my own voice.

sorta.

Dark Twout

Remember This?

. . . the perils of sticking your hand into

someone else's Outback.

Nola Project: Childhood

Yet another Nola panel. The project has been 'self-edited' down to three Graphic Novels, otherwise it might never get finished.

The 'Cap'ians' (along the top and bottom) subliminally appeared in the very first Darker Image Maxx story.

That shows just how looooooong i've been toiling away on this sucker.

Lo / Sketchbook face.

Another variation on that old sketchbook cover.

Here's the original.

Possible my favorite Epicurus panel.

Some Epicurus panels were packed with way-more detail than this,

but it took years to slowly understand, sometimes . . .

empty spaces,
 

have their own things to say.

Here's a Enso influenced Maxx cover 20, one that's a  little minimal or abstract looking.  But i've been surprised how many fans seemed to like it, specificly because it's a little subtle.

It's also a nod to the original Maxx 20 cover, which is the red one on the right, which is kinda unusual  looking too.

Which do you prefer?

Bosch satire

 

Here's part of a page that appeared in a Lobo mini series i did a while back.

Obviously a node to well known painter Bosch  








Sometimes it's cool to look at a panel in sections.

Especially when it's an unusually busy page. 

Anyway, here's the full splash page.

Nothing much happens . . .

Quick pic of a Chickens Revolt page . . .

Slowly but surely.

Aliens splash

Here's a splash that's so big (14 by 18 inches) that i had to scan it on two halves. Someday it'll find it's home in Worlds part 2.

Don't worry, i'll also do a better job at merging the upper and lower halve in the printed version.  Meanwhile, here's a quickie version just for fun.

And yeah... that's a piece of black duck tape along the top.

Hey, it wouldn't be a legitimate "sam kieth page" . . .  without some duck tape mixed in there somewhere.

Rougher Style

The Hollows mini series was was a departure.

My style was deliberately a lot rougher in this book, but i wanted it to be more "feeling" focused look,  more like the intimacy that a children's book illustration usually has, instead of my usual comic book style. 

Dunno if it worked or not.  Anyway.. i enjoyed it.

Judge Dredd piece

I did this for a fan a few years ago . . .

Trying to Wake Myself up . .

Every Maxx cover is another chance to at least Try something new.  As we age, repetition is kinda inevitable, but here's an  good example:

Here's Maxx, with a tree behind his body.  But as i was drawing it, i thought . . what if the tree wasn't behind him, but instead, what if the branches, mushrooms were growing out of his body? 

Yeah, kinda weird, but so what?  Still in progress, but every drawing is another chance to break out of old habits.

Even if i fail, it's at least a worth trying.  

Dana & poppette on Tree Branch

Another one of those "curved sam keith tree branches". . .

. . that i seem to be so found on drawing over and over.

Wrapping stuff up..

This year's looking to be one of finishing various projects lying around the studio for far too long.  Way$hak have promised to wrap up chickens this year, ( it's actually my fault this wound, not his.)

And Eleanor's out now, plus some more New Projects in the pipeline.  People keep telling me it's been a few years since anything's come out, but the deal is, i *have* been working, it just all stacked up in little piles in my studio.

Plus there's numerous Maxx related Projects & Art Books in the works too, so i'll update everybody as those are brought to boil too.

Thanks for everyone's patience.

Breaking in...

I did a ton of bad art while trying to break into comics. ( Actually, i still do, but that's another story.. )

This is a panel from a unfinished horror story.  The kids neck's too thick, a common tendency of my early stuff.

Not great, and obviously still a little rough, being a fledgling effort.

Here's something you might not have noticed at first: check out the image that's reflected in the puddle.

See the *hand* reaching up for the kid?

The monster's hand is *only* in the reflection,  so... is the monster real?  Or is he only in the kid's imagination?

Typical EC Comic or Twilight Zone plot-twist.  Seems kinda cheesy now, but back in my teens,

i was quite convinced it was terribly clever.

Enough already -

Sorry to drive you crazy with all these versions, but here's the final on that Maxx cover i started a few posts back.

Main difference is i filled in the snake's coils, and added a little detail to Maxx's face.

The arm may have gotten overly rendered, but what can i say. .

i like drawing arms.

--- 

Here's how we got here:

Batman Collection

Here's a "sienkiewicz-y" looking panel from Batman Confidential comic i did a while back.

Interestingly it was only Batman story not collected in a trade.

But the good news is plans are underway for a nice oversized collection of my Batman original artwork, sometime this summer.

Late start today..

Just in the nick of time, another post for ya today!

Goofy fact: Those m&ms weren't added digitally, i added them by hand, after i finished the tree, but i was too lazy to finish the last yellow one, up on the upper right.

So it looks like a "multiply"  digital layer effect.

Girl in sunlight

Fashion drawing from the 'Worlds' book.

Sandman's little sister

This one almost seems too simple,

just a series of heads mounted on a wall.

Maxx is probably a little out of place here, isn't he?

oh well . . .  i couldn't resist.

Totally forgot i even drew this one . .

. .  some cozy winter wear.

Dana-Nola page cut up into "three chunks".

Here's three of Dana and Nola, two sisters from the Trout-a-verse,

of whom i post about quite often.

For the most part, Maxx characters  vs Trout characters  are two separate deals.

But there's a few characters that migrate over.

Gone and Nola share a brother sister-like supernatural connection.

'Horse Maxx Sara' looks an awful lot like Dana does, only Dana is a little chubbier.

The 'Friends of Maxx' folks, Charlie Ira, Micky and Dude, and even old Amy Smootster from Zero Girl, will be relocated to where they originally belonged, which is in Trout-a-verse land.  Sorry to blab on about all this stuff.. kinda boring until you read the book itself.

So much for my shorter posts, eh?